


Stay, If Only for a Night

by shatteredcrystalwings



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: (only a little), Angst, Dialogue Heavy, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Tsukiyama doesn't have a good time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 09:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5737960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shatteredcrystalwings/pseuds/shatteredcrystalwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hide almost becomes prey to a hungry ghoul only to be rescued by someone he hadn't seen in months.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay, If Only for a Night

**Author's Note:**

> I started this in like June of last year and kind of just forgot about it. It was originally supposed to be serious, but yeah no I hope you enjoy all the horrible jokes. There is still some semblance of a plot.
> 
> Also I apologize to Tsukiyama.
> 
> This is set around two thirds into the manga.

The starved creature stalked forward, causing him to retreat until his back hit the icy surface of the wall behind him. He felt a lump well in his throat as he watched drool drip down from the ghoul’s lips which were pulled back in a grin, teeth clenched, as she anticipated the taste of his flesh sliding down her throat.

Lowering her stance, the muscles in her thighs and calves clenched and a moment later she leapt, speeding through the air towards her target. What she was met with, however, was not the soft body of her prey. Instead, she felt as though a horizontal pole had struck her across the chest. Her body was thrown back, crashing painfully against the wall opposite the one she’d been aiming for. For a moment, stars danced before her eyes until she recollected herself, trying to discern what had happened.

Her only hint was the boy she’d been about to kill, whose gaze was now locked on something far above her.

* * *

Buildings flew by beneath his feet as Kaneki bounded across rooftops of the 20th Ward, followed closely by Tsukiyama and Banjou as they made their way back home from a job. The foul taste of ghoul flesh and blood still lingered on his tastebuds. The sense of victory remained with it, though even now, it always came muddled with self-disgust.

As the trio leapt over an alleyway, Kaneki felt an odd tug of familiarity at something he’d caught the briefest glimpse of down below. Coming to an abrupt halt, his feet sliding against concrete from the sudden loss of momentum, he motioned for his two companions to continue on without him. “There’s something I want to check quickly,” he explained in response to their curious gazes. The two shared a brief glance, but did as they were instructed.

With the two men’s departure, he slunk to the edge of the building, thankful to still be wearing his mask, and glanced down at the small backstreet below. His breath caught at what his eyes were greeted with.

What had caught his eye was a familiar garish yellow and black jacket but, much to his horror, its all too familiar wearer was being cornered against the building across from Kaneki. Looking directly down from where he stood, he saw the cause of the boy’s fearful stature: a ghoul stalked slowly forward, her rinkaku kagune bristling out around her. He watched as she lowered herself and readied to lunge at her much weaker prey.

Kaneki was faster. He threw himself toward the concrete below, catching himself with one appendage of his kagune while shooting another out, slamming it across the ghoul’s torso and sending her flying backwards.

He looked down in satisfaction as she crumpled against the wall, but his stomach dropped when he noticed that the boy who moments ago was about to be someone’s midnight snack was now staring pointedly at him, his expression wild and bewildered for a moment before his jaw set in a hard line, resolute. He hardly looked like one who had been seconds away from death barely a moment ago.

Distracted by this, Kaneki was almost too late in noticing that the earlier ghoul, now recovered, thrust her kagune directly at his stomach, his reflexes only fast enough to avoid a direct hit as he felt scaly barbs tears at his side, ripping away the fabric that had been there. Blood dripping down towards his hip, he silently chastised himself as he thought of how he would surely have to deal with a very disgruntled Tsukiyama later when he learned that the battle suit he had made had been damaged. At least the wound itself didn’t seem too deep.

So used to slaughter as of late, he lunged forward, knocking his opponent to the ground as he felt the hole in his side start to stitch itself back together. His kagune shot out, pinning her to the ground and he jumped on top of her to better assert his dominance.

She was weak. The very fact that she had landed a hit on him at all was an embarrassment, a fluke caused by his surprise. She would be an easy kill, except-

Kaneki refused to turn his eyes from the ghoul writhing under him, but he could practically feel Hide’s eyes boring into him.

He couldn’t kill her.

Not in front of him.

Not if that look before meant what Kaneki feared it had.

How annoying…

A loud snap echoed around them, closely followed by a scream before he shoved his hand over the ghoul’s mouth, leaning close to her. “If you don’t want worse than a broken wrist,” he said lowly, “get out of here and never even _think_ about hunting here again. Do you understand me?”

Tears streamed from large eyes as she nodded. Kaneki released his grip on her and she scrambled away, running to the mouth of the alley as she clutched her wrist against her.

“That seemed a little harsh,” a voice behind him said.

He didn’t turn around.

“Kaneki.”

His eyes scanned over the side of the building in front of him, mapping out the easiest way to climb it.

“Kaneki, I know it’s you.”

Oh god dammit.

He still refused to turn. “This really wasn’t the way I wanted you to find out.”

“You say that like you actually intended to tell me.”

Silence.

“You didn’t, right?”

“Hide-”

“You thought it was better to just leave me in the dark forever.”

“Hide, this isn’t the place-”

“‘Cause I’m safer that way, right? What are you, a goddamn superhero-”

“Hide!” Finally he turned, but the words he was about to say died on his lips when he saw the tears in Hide’s eyes.

“You didn’t even say anything to me, y’know that?” Despite his expression, his voice was steady. Stern. “I felt like I was losing you, and then you just up and disappeared without a word.”

“Hide, I…” He floundered for words, but instead, a resolution clicked into place in his mind.

He shouldn’t do this.

Every logical part of him was screaming “no”.

But he couldn’t do this anymore.

Not like this.

“Come with me. I’ll… I’ll try to explain what I can.”

* * *

Tsukiyama’s expression immediately soured as he took in the person who walked through the door behind Kaneki. “ _Pardon_ Kaneki-kun, but is that a-”

“Fuck off for a bit, Tsukiyama-san.”

With Hide in tow, Kaneki quickly made his way to his small room.

“Well that’s a side of you I certainly haven’t seen before,” Hide remarked once the door was closed, dropping his backpack to the floor.

“I’m just… a little on edge. I don’t think that should be surprising, given the circumstances.” Kaneki sat himself down on the side of his bed, shortly followed by his friend.

“Touché. So you’re living with that guy, huh? He your boyfriend?” Hide waggled his eyebrows.

“God no, don’t even joke about that. There’s a few others running around here too. I’ve somehow become something of a leader to them.”

He whistled. “Wow, this from the kid with ‘committeehobia’.”

“That was such a bad lie,” Kaneki said, recalling a happier time. Not happy, to be sure, but happier. “I still can’t believe those guys actually went along with that.”

“Really makes you wonder how some of these people even managed to get into Kamii.”

“Well _you_ managed, so it must not be as hard as everyone says.”

“That is rude. I’m plenty smart.”

“If you say so,” Kaneki chuckled.

“I figured out you’re a ghoul, didn’t I?”

The chuckling stopped. “...You really know how to kill the mood, huh.”

Together, they sat in silence for a turn before Hide finally spoke again. “You said you’d explain things. Kaneki, I- ...I don’t want to make you feel like I’m forcing anything out of you, but I’ve been left in the dark for so long and I’m just… I’m _tired_ of it, Kaneki.”

Kaneki stayed quiet, looking at his hands, at his blackened fingernails. He had occasionally wondered if their colour would someday revert back to a healthy one rather than these seemingly permanent bruises.

So much had happened since he had last seen Hide. So much had happened since he had last been _honest_ with him. How was he supposed to explain it all? Where was he supposed to start?

“Okay,” Hide’s tone brightened as he turned his body to face Kaneki, bringing his legs onto the bed and tucking them under him as he simultaneously crossed his arms across his chest. “How about I tell you what I already know and we can go from there? Sound good? And if I get anything wrong, you can correct me.”

Slowly, he nodded.

“Great! Alright, so! I know you’re a ghoul, I’m pretty sure we’ve covered that base already. From what I can tell, it had something to do with your surgery, so my guess is that it has something to do with that chick you were into. That’s some unusual catfish you stumbled upon, I’ll give you that much.”

“Hide.”

“Sorry, sorry. Too soon?”

“ _Hide_.”

“Okay. Actually sorry this time. Kind of. I’ve known you for years, man, I can tell you found it at least a little funny. Anyway! What else, let’s see… I was awake during the whole incident with Nishio-senpai, bet you didn’t know that.”

Kaneki stared at him, shock evident on his face as Hide just grinned.

“I knew it! I had you totally fooled with my playing dead! Right, so it was a teensy bit of a lie just now when I said I was awake the _whole_ time, I _was_ actually out for the first minute or two. But other than that, I saw it all! Well, heard. For the most part. I peaked a couple looks, which is part of why I recognized you earlier, by the way. Those tentacle things are so cool, you’ve gotta let me touch those at some point.”

“You are not touching my kagune. They’re weapons, I’ll just end up hurting you.”

“Aw, c’mon ‘Neki, please?”

“No.”

“Party pooper.”

“Bite me.”

“Says the ghoul to the human.”

Kaneki smacked him upside the head. Lightly, of course.

“...Do you know anything about what happened after that?”

Hide’s tone became more serious. “I’m not as certain, but I did notice things. I had seen that little girl and her mother a few times when I came to Anteiku. Both disappeared for a while and I noticed everyone seemed more tense. I saw the girl a few times after that but not the mother, so I… I did some reading and found out that a mother ghoul had been killed and… and then there was that investigator killed. My guess is that that mother ghoul was…”

“Ryouko-san,” Kaneki supplied, covering his eyes with an opened hand. “The girl you mentioned is Hinami-chan. She’s one of the people living here, actually.”

Hide nodded slowly.

“I, uh... “ Kaneki continued, surprising Hide, “I was there. When Ryouko-san was killed. I also saw the investigator, after he was…” He trailed off, seemingly unable to finish the sentence.

“Kaneki…” Hide reached a hand out, placing it lightly just above Kaneki’s knee in an attempt to comfort him.

“...So? Is there anything else?” His voice was level again, barely showing signs of how shaky it had been only a moment earlier.

Hide hesitated a moment before continuing. “I didn’t really notice anything for a while. Nothing big, at least. I started to do more research on ghouls, wondering if I could maybe figure out a way to be useful to you. And I, uh, I started trying out some detective kind of stuff. Nothing serious, just silly stuff really. Do you remember how, for a while, I was really into that one manga about the detective who gets turned into a kid? I still had some stuff I had bought from back then, including um… Including some tracking and listening devices.”

Kaneki looked at him as if he had just confessed to murder.

“I never used them on you! Or anyone at Anteiku, I swear! I only tried out three total, and two of them didn’t get anything interesting other that I found out some dude was cheating on his wife. For the record, old people sound gross when they’re banging.”

“What about the third one?”

“...Kaneki…” He hesitated, but the reluctance in his voice only served to make Kaneki more determined to know. More determined, but also more afraid.

“What… _Who_ did you put the listening device on?”

“It was purely coincidence. I happened to see the guy and thought he looked kinda shady and it’s a miracle that I even got the thing on him without being noticed-”

“Who was it.”

Hide took a deep breath in. “...A guy named Yamori.”

Kaneki felt like he was going to be sick. “What did you hear…?” he said, voice barely audible. He didn’t want to hear the answer.

Hide clenched his hands, not looking at the other boy as he reached for words. “I’m so _so_ sorry, Kaneki. I had completely forgotten about about all three of the listening devices. I hadn’t seen you in a week and you weren’t answering your phone or door, and Anteiku was closed and I couldn’t find anyone from there. I remembered about the devices and tried checking all of them on the off chance that they would give me something useful…” His fingernails dug into the palms of his hands, regret resurfacing as he remembered. “I should have thought to check them sooner. Maybe, if I had, I could have figured out something-”

“What did you hear.”

He didn’t want to say it. Didn’t want to acknowledge that it had happened. “...I heard you screaming. And… And some other stuff.”

A loud crack was heard and Hide looked up to see Kaneki pressing down on his pointer finger so hard that it looked like it was going to break.

“Kaneki?”

At the sound of his name, Kaneki seemed to recollect himself, curling his fingers into a fist as he realized what he had been doing. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. ‘Sides, I’m with you now. No one can hurt you when I’m around,” he said, making a show of flexing his arms.

Kaneki scoffed.

“What, you don’t think I can take ‘em? I’ll have you know I have now survived three different hungry ghouls tryna snack on some Hide buns. Four, if we include you.”

Kaneki perked up, concern melting into his features as he held Hide’s gaze. “Four?” There was an edge to his voice.

“Well, one is that chick you saved me from earlier, Mr Knight in Shining Scales.” Ah yes, nothing to break a tense mood like a bad pun. Kaneki frowned. “Then there was one who tried to follow me home from Anteiku once. He was nothing, I shook him off easily by running around alleys. Then the other one was a guy I met through some friends at school. Did you know ghouls hate hot sauce? Valuable information, if you ask me.”

Kaneki held his gaze for a few seconds before ducking his head down, moving his head around Hide’s torso as he repeatedly sniffed, even picking up Hide’s arms to smell his armpits.

“Um. What are you doing?”

“Trying to figure out if you smell especially appetizing, though I suppose you can’t be too great considering Tsukiyama-san didn’t say anything at the door.”

“Thanks. Careful though. If I smell too good, it may be hard for you to resist me.”

Kaneki scoffed. “I’ve been with you for the better part of my life. If anything, I’m probably dulled to your scent. Plus I ate just before I ran into you.”

“Oh.” Hide turned that over in his mind a few times. “You’re eating humans now then, huh?”

Silence.

“Something worse than humans?”

More silence.

He locked their eyes. “Are you eating babies, Kaneki?”

“No! _God_ , you’re horrible, y’know that? And I’m pretty sure babies count as humans.”

“Half a human.”

“Fine, half a human.”

“So, what you’re eating isn’t as bad as babies. That rules out puppies, kittens, and some breeds of rabbits.”

Kaneki raised an eyebrow.

“The little fluffy ones.”

“I see. So the not little fluffy ones are okay then?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t eat them myself if I could avoid it, but yeah. There, we’ve ruled out the worst possibilities, now what are you eating?”

There was silence for a few more moments and Hide was almost about to urge Kaneki on more before he spoke. “...Other ghouls.”

“Huh. Hm. Y’know, I’ve heard people describe ghouls as cannibals, so doesn’t that make you, like, a cannibal cannibal? Cannibal squared. Oh, and aren’t ghouls way stronger than humans? So you must be really strong now, huh? I _had_ noticed you had bulked up a bit. Can I see your abs?”

“You’re not bothered by me eating ghouls?”

“Friend. Bro. My dude. I was already down with the idea of you eating people, ghouls are just like, people leveled up. S’not that different, honestly. Seriously though, can I see your abs? I’m really curious about those, now that I’m thinking about it.”

“No.”

“Awwww please? For me? Your bosom buddy?”

Kaneki just deadpanned. Hide took that as a sign to very slowly inch his fingers towards the hem of his shirt.

“Hide-” Kaneki interjected, but there was laughter in his voice. He reached a hand out to half-heartedly try to stop Hide, and before they knew it, they were wrestling, Kaneki on his back and Hide over him, still trying to pull at his shirt as they were consumed by giggles.

Hide was just savouring the victory of managing to get the shirt yanked up to Kaneki’s armpits when the door opened.

“Kaneki-kun, I’ve been thinking and I really don’t- _EXCUSE MOI_.”

They barely had time to look up before Tsukiyama slammed the door closed again.

Hide blinked at the sudden interruption, confused, before realizing how Tsukiyama had probably interpreted their positions.

Loud, chortling laughter filled the room and Hide rested his forehead on Kaneki’s chest, unable to hold it up himself with how funny he found the situation.

Their laughter slowly subsided, punctuated by occasional giggles, and Hide let himself stay where he was, laying his head more comfortably on Kaneki’s chest as he reveled in being able to be so close to the person who had for so long seemed unreachable. “...You’re not allowed to leave me again.”

Silence passed between them for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“Is that an ‘I’m sorry for being a dick and leaving’ sorry or an ‘I’m sorry because I’m going to do it again’ sorry?”

Kaneki didn’t say anything. Hide was glad that they couldn’t see each other’s faces from the way they were lying. He didn’t think he wanted to see the expression Kaneki was making. And he didn’t want Kaneki to see the tears that were pricking at his eyes.

“You don’t have to, y’know. Leave, I mean.”

“Hide…”

“I missed you. A lot.”

“I missed you too.”

“Yet you didn’t do anything about it.”

A few moments passed before Kaneki spoke again, and in that quiet, Hide listened to the steady rhythm of Kaneki’s breaths and the more erratic beat of his heart. “I… I was afraid.”

“Of what?”

“I guess… That you’d find out what I was and not see me as myself anymore. I was afraid you’d think I was a monster. Not even scared of me, just disgusted.”

“Nerd.”

“What?! Why am I a nerd?”

“You’re a nerd for thinking I could ever dislike you.”

“...Oh.”

“I mean,” Hide propped himself up on his elbows so that he could actually look at Kaneki again, “We’ve known each other for how many years now? We went through puberty together, man. If there was ever a time for me to be disgusted by you, it was then.”

“That’s not fair, you were worse.”

“And you still stuck with me,” he grinned.

Kaneki smiled back. “I do question that fact sometimes.”

Hide flicked him on the forehead with a stern utterance of “bad”.

“Hey!”

“Oh c’mon, that probably felt like nothing to you.”

“That doesn’t mean it was nice.”

“Consider it payback. Now we’re even.”

“A flick and we’re even?”

“Don’t test your luck, buddy. I’m being extremely forgiving here. I might as well be an angel.”

“What does that make me then?”

“The devil who’s gonna pull me to hell as I graciously welcome it.”

“I don’t think I like that analogy.”

“Too bad, we’re sticking with it. Mm, and you weren’t originally a devil, that’s the catch. Really, you’re more like a fallen angel who got dragged down. And when you were in heaven, you were super high rank,” Hide gesticulated. “Like, almost god.”

Kaneki raised his eyebrows.

“Yup. And I’m the valiant knight-angel who has arrived to save you.”

“But now you’re involved. You haven’t really saved anything, you’ve just doomed yourself.”

“I’m with _you_ though, so I don’t mind. I’d rather be in hell with you than in heaven alone,” Hide said cheekily, trying to hide the sincerity in the statement.

“I can’t believe how cheesy that just was.”

“Aw, but you know you thought it was cute.”

“You made it sound like we’re in love.”

“Dang. I thought we were. Ah well, guess I’ll pack my bags and leave with my gross crush in hand.” He got up, trying to maintain a joking expression as he felt his cheeks heat. He was hoping it would pass as just a joke. Kaneki wouldn’t take it seriously, right?

“Hide?”

“Hm?” he said, facing away from Kaneki with his arms crossed behind his head.

He could hear the rustling of fabric and Kaneki sat up on the bed. “Did you mean that? The crush thing?”

“Pft, no, of course not, man.”

“Oh.” Was there a twinge of disappointment in his voice? No, it couldn’t be. It was just Hide’s imagination.

“Anyway, um,” Hide said, “I should probably be going. It’s what, two in the morning at least? I’m gonna be zonked for class in the morning.”

“You-! Um, you can stay here for the night. If you want. It’s not much further from Kamii than your apartment is, and I can make you coffee in the morning to help you wake up. Oh, but I guess you don’t have your books…”

“You’re really okay with that?” Hide looked at Kaneki, stunned slightly.

“Y-yeah. I mean, we used to sleep over at each other’s places all the time. Unless you’re uncomfortable sleeping so close to a ghoul which I can totally under-”

“Yeah.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah. Sure. I’ll stay the night. I already told you, I don’t care about the ghoul thing. I should be able to manage my classes tomorrow with what I have in my backpack, don’t worry about that.”

Kaneki nodded slowly. “Okay. You can share the bed with me, if you’re okay with it. It should be big enough for both of us.”

“I’m down,” Hide smiled. “Oh, do you mind if I grab myself some water? My throat is kinda dry from all the talking, sorry.”

“Huh? Yeah, of course. The kitchen is down the hall on your left.”

“Cool, want me to grab you anything?”

“I wouldn’t mind some water as well.”

“Alright,” he walked over to the door but stopped just before opening it, his hand resting on the knob. “And Kaneki?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for telling me.”

Stepping through the door, he closed it lightly behind himself before leaning back against it. He let out a deep sigh, running his hands down his face as he tried to release the weight of everything that had just happened in that room. Everything that _could_ still happen.

Now that Kaneki was back in his life, the possibilities seemed endless.

* * *

Tsukiyama walked into the kitchen to see the _human_ whom Kaneki had brought into the house standing next to the sink. “I hope you’re on your way out, _Monsieur_ ,” he said, not bothering to put on any polite airs after what he had walked in on earlier.

Turning with a glass of water in each hand, the human looked him up and down for a moment before speaking. “I’m staying the night and Kaneki and I are going to be having very loud sex,” he said flatly before walking out of the room, leaving Tsukiyama to question how mad Kaneki would potentially be if he killed that creature.

**Author's Note:**

> Miiiiiiight do a follow up chapter to this at some point, but I'm not sure right now.


End file.
